


Imagine

by nxctez



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Altea Royalty, Altea customs, Altean Lance (Voltron), Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, DO NOT READ TAGS OR STORY IF YOU HAVE NOT SEEN SEASON 8 CAUSE BOI SPOILERS, Fix-It, Fix-it fic, Galra Biology, Galra Keith (Voltron), Getting Together, Happy Ending, Happy Ending tho, Intersex, Intersex Character, Kick, Langst, Loss, M/M, Mourning, Originally Posted Elsewhere, Slow Burn, Violence, allurance, altea, dw klance is canon, guess we gotta do shit ourselves huh, im sorry, its sad, its spoilers if you look into it deep enough lmao, klance, klangst, like everyone smh, literally everything anyone ever wanted with klance will happen just saying, more tags will be added, tbh this is what i wanted to happen, y'all they deserved better
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-12-16
Updated: 2018-12-20
Packaged: 2019-09-20 06:26:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,471
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17017449
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nxctez/pseuds/nxctez
Summary: Varadero Beach sunsets, your neck to my cheek, sand stuck on our feet,imagine a world like that.imagine voltron like that.Klance fix-it fic cause we have to do everything in this house.





	1. The Call to Come Back

**Author's Note:**

> ah hello, yes, i too am depressed about voltron season 8 but not to worry. we have fics and fanon to keep us alive. kick. also i recommend you listen to the Voltron Soundtrack ( doesn't matter what season ) on Soundcloud by Brian Parkhurst, some songs inspired a lot of scenes in this and they fit well with the plot! enjoy reading!

_Step up the two of us,_

_nobody knows us_

_Get in the car like, "_ _Skrrt"_

 

and a year later, nothing went back to normal. through their lives the paladins of voltron faced many changes and many normals. they faced the normal of earth, how it welcomed them home each time the came and left, even if a lot of the times it was just waking up from the darkness of sleep. many of them faced the normal or the galaxy garrison, the harsh tones of the professors, the early hours waking up to train, the disappointments and the curfews. all of them faced the normal of the voltron lions, of the many corridors or the castle of lions, of the constant wake up calls for battle, of the decisions they had to make.. but maybe not the hard ones. they had all made it past the normals and the changes in their lives, but a normal that they could never get used to, and never would, would be not having allura with them. it wasn't normal, it was torture. some more than others found her loss harder to get over. they all moved on, but it would never be normal, but maybe that was a good thing.

maybe if it was normal, it would be unbearable.

they were all an altea when the lions started to roar and they flew off into the stars, into the cosmos to honour allura and her sacrifice for every reality and more. lances newly attained altean marks glowed in the darkness of the night, reminding him that she is still there and will always be with him, that they are all made up of the same cosmic dust. when the paladins went they're separate ways a few days after that, lance back to earth to his family and the life he had there, hunk and shiro back to the atlas to continue with whatever the universe needed them for, pidge returned home to endless sleepless nights of working on her robot, and keith returned to the blade of marmora where he truly belonged, they all did, and the universe was at peace. or so they all thought.

☽☾

the atlas had returned to earth for a very special day of the year. on all of their birthdays the paladins would meet at the galaxy garrison on earth, sure every single one of them kept in touch with new high tech that made them seem real when they were galaxies apart but flying back to the garrison and seeing each other in person on their home planet made the darkest feelings go away for each and every one of them. of course these reunions were bittersweet for reasons but they tried to to dwell on it as much. this time they were back at the garrison for lances birthday. lance and veronica were waiting near the landing bay for everyone to arrive, pidge was there already, she usually always was with her parents and brother. all they had to wait for now was keith, shiro and hunk. hunk always cooked the meals on the way, spending the entire flight with his crew serving up everyone's favourite meals and something extra special for the birthday someone. this year was no different, through their phones that pidge made specially for all the paladins lance had called hunk earlier and could practically smell the garlic knots being made, they had to log off soon after that, the rest was a surprise. but now the atlas was here and the former black and yellow paladins were safe on the ground, just meters away.

lance smiled warmly as hunk and shiro approached him and his sister, no words were exchanged just hugs, the talking could wait for later when lances family starts to pool into the room and it becomes and loud rambling mess, a good one though. this time though, the silence didn't stay for long. veronica spoke as they walked through the doors into the main quarters,

"how was your trip?" she asks, a small smile on her face.

hunk and shiro look at one another, "it was the usual, nothing that slowed us down and nothing that sped us up." shiro spoke and hunk nodding in approval.

"maybe for you shiro, but when i say the kitchen was a mess, let me tell you it was a mess! we didn't have some of the right ingredients that we thought we had and we had to make do with what we had, i hope it's all still the same!" the yellow paladin gives lance and shy smile, but hunks words mean nothing to offend him. his best friend was the greatest chef in all of universe, if he had to make something up it will probably be better than the original.

lance shakes his head and waves his hand with a small smirk on his face, "not to worry buddy, i'm sure everything tastes great!"

shiro nods and wanders off into conversation with veronica and the rest of the mcclain's slowly piling into the room, it slowly gets louder and louder and maybe-

"hey! i can't believe they arrived and you didn't tell me, what have you become lance!" the familiar voice shuts down the more familiar one in his head. lance and hunk both look to the side to see pidge with bae bae at her feet, with her classic sly smirk and hand delicately near her glasses. hunk squeals and his eyes shine at their friend, he jumps up and down and engulfs the green paladin in a spine crushing hug, almost squeezing her to death.

"pidge! ah, it's so good to see you! even though we only talked- like, yesterday but that doesn't matter! it's so good to see you in person. how's the robots by the way?" hunks questions gets drowned in the noise of the room, he sees his mum and brother talking with shiro and his dad with mr holt, mrs holt is inspecting the health of the plants in the room with a notebook in hand and matt and his girlfriend are talking to the rest of his family.

this happens every paladin birthday, when everyone gets together again. he feels like he's drowning, he almost wishes he could go back to the farm and just lay down and look at the sun until it blinds him. it's not only then when he felt like he was underwater, when he want to varadero beach a few months after he got back ,he collapsed and woke up in his childhood bed. he separated himself from there because it held to many memories and too little. suddenly, the red paladin feels a hand on his shoulder. he looks around to be greeted with a very familiar face and one that he is forever thankful for.

"are you alright, my boy?" says coran. lance just nods, he's not, he knows he's not, heck everyone knows he's not but they don't acknowledge it because- he doesn't know why. maybe because he never talks about it. lance gives a genuine smile to coran, the man deserves it. heck, the altean is probably more distraught about what happened more than he is. lance got to say goodbye, he got to see the love of his life fade off into the light. coran couldn't get a single goodbye. 

lance nods, "i'm doing alright coran, and you?"

"ah," coran sighs, "you know me, ticking along." that's always his answer, it never changes.

after a few moments of silence between the two of them coran strolls off towards the holt family and starts a conversation over there. lance would sometimes visit altea and visit coran just for a sense of comfort, sure he had many juniberry flowers on his farm but he liked to be around the building and tech and feel the energy from the planet, feel the energy from her he thought of more though. he sighs and leans against the wall behind him, and looks around the room once more. everyone is here, he hadn't seen when krolia and kolivan had arrived but they're mingling with shiro and a few alteans. he can't help but notice that something is missing though, well- of course there is something missing but, it's something else. he saves himself one last glance around the room, studying people's actions and movements and who exactly they're talking to. that's it. the few members of the blade of marmora that come to these events are no where to be seen, keith is nowhere to be seen. that's strange, he is usually one of the first to arrive.

lances face scrunches up in confusion and he lets the thought take over his brain. why isn't he here? he takes a moment to himself to allow him to go check the radio for any incoming ships, nothing. his eyebrows crease at that. can't hear anything out on the landing bay, no new footsteps or any new voices join the many in the main quarters. but out of nowhere the radio starts to beep and he looks down, it's a ship heading at dangerous speeds towards earth but the icon of it is blue so it must be friendly. and what is he thinking, the universe was saved there is nothing to worry about in that department anymore.

"hello lance." he hears a voice come from the main entrance door, it's soft and light and somehow welcoming, even though it is krolia. lance looks over a tiny bit startled but smiles back to the one she's giving him, he cant help but glance down at the radio once more to see that the ship has almost reached earth, from where it was a few seconds ago it should have at least taken 20 minutes for it to get from there is its new position.

then he realises that he hasn't answered the galra, "oh! sorry krolia, hi." and he waves and looks up at her for a slip second, eyes going straight back to the radio.

she hums amused, and walks over right beside lance. her own eyes drop down to the radio and and chuckles to herself for a moment, "maybe he realised he was late." she says and her eyes meet lances. her words make him feel silly in the weirdest way but she's right, maybe he did realise and is speeding towards earth and life threatening speeds to get to a party. yeah that doesn't sound much like keith. but he agrees anyway.

"yeah, haha. mullet needs to handle his time well." his voice is overly fake, fake as the dolls his twin sister used to get as a kid. krolia notices and doesn't let it slip.

she hums, "you do not have to lie to me lance, there is something worrying you about this ship. what is it?"

lance takes moment and opens his mouth to respond but at a split second there is a familiar face on the screen in front of them. axca sits there with a few bruises on her arms and ezor and zethrid behind her are pretty much the same, he notices that axca is piloting and keith is nowhere to be seen. his stomach drops. "this is the blade of marmora to the galaxy garrison, if anyone is there we have a code red, i repeat we have a code red!" krolia and lance's eyes go wide and he notices that this message was send a few minutes ago after it repeats himself. code red.

krolia looks to him and it is impossible not to see the worry in her eyes, "keith." she murmurs and a second later they hear and ship land in the loading deck.

the two run out of the radio room and sprint out to the landing deck, there sits one of the blade or marmora's ships. keith's ship to be exact and the hood of it is open to reveal that yes, this is a code red. only axca, ezor and zethrid are in the ship. they usually arrive with keith. he notices krolia walking up to them to help them out of the ship, they're battered more than they usually are.

lance sprints into the main quarters where everyone is and searches around he room to see if this is some sick joke, that maybe keith arrived with the atlas to play a prank on lance. but keith isn't a prankster and he is nowhere to be found.

he notices that everyone's eyes are on him and he is breathing heavily, he makes eye contact with shiro and he really doesn't want to tell shiro, he really doesn't want him to worry, he really doesn't want to have to tell shiro that his little brother is in trouble. but, by rule and promise he does. "code red!" he shouts across the room. he notices shiro's face fall, he can hear the murmurs around family members and others, he can see how coran drops into a chair heavily and his head falls into his hands, lance can see the bewildered looks on pidge and hunk's faces. he's glad he can't see his own face right now.

he feels krolia and the trio move up behind him, the family members and others seem to grasp onto what 'code red' means. and soon everything in the entire room shifts, the paladins and people who know keith personally are ordered to stay in the room by shiro, everyone else is to leave immediately. veronica draws a symbol into the wall and a long table and many chairs pop up out of the ground. this is really happening.

as everyone gets into position, lance takes a moment to let the horrible words of 'code red' sink in. those words mean the exact same thing as 'code blue', 'code black', 'code green', and 'code yellow'. the paladins made it on allura's anniversary, they made it to be safe but then again they made it for fun, they all agreed that if anything was to ever happen to any of them, from family emergency to battle cry that they would always respond with their code and as soon as the rest of the team could they would drop everything and get to them. they never thought they would have to use one, especially one from keith. he's tough and knows how to handle life and death experiences and get out alive. heck they all do but keith has a knack to it. it seems surreal that he had to use one, and for what?

confusion takes over him, but anger soon overpowers it. he's held anger in for too long and now seems to be the most appropriate time to let it all out, let it all out for keith, for allura. he glares over at axca, ezor and zethrid and takes a deep breath. axca feels eyes on her, shes too aware of her surroundings to not and even with her statue facade he sees her crumble under his look. "code red!" he chokes out and entire room stops.

" _code red_! and you had to come all the way to earth to tell us, to tell us that keith is on some other planet sending out his code, crying out for help! and the _first_ thing you do is come to earth! not to help him, maybe give it a try! but no! you leave him on that planet where he could as well be _dead_ by now as how long it took you to get here! to inform us in person that he sent out his code! you could have contacted the atlas, the garrison, krolia and kolivan! but no you waste time and say it with a hint of desperation in your voice, you say 'code red' as if it means nothing! how do you think keith feels! h-he-" but the rest doesn't come out, soon his vision is flickering between colour and pure darkness and the last thing he sees is krolia, shiro and coran running towards him.

 

 

 

 

 


	2. waking up

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> chapter two! not much happens but it is vital to the story, happy reading!

_Staying up all night, order me pad thai_   
_Then we gon' sleep 'til noon_

lance watched as the stars drifted by as the atlas flew through them. the remembers the times on the castle of lions, when he was feeling too homesick to cope, he would look at the stars and be reminded that him and his family could possibly be looking at the same ones, no matter how far away he was from earth that though was always in his head, even though it may have never been true. he also remembers the time when allura had taken the chance to watch the stars with him, it was only one night. neither of them could sleep. they just talked and talked and talked and learned more about each other than they knew already. looking at the stars makes him miss her even more than he usually does.

he woke up ten minutes ago. he was gasping for breath and he knew he had said something the second he woke but he can't remember what, the drowning feeling was there when he woke but the water was too loud for him to hear. lance knows he's on the atlas, he's at the medbay. he remembers because this room is almost identical to the one allura was in when he came back from clear day. he can't remember what happened after he heard the horrendous words spill from axca's mouth in the radio room, he remembers krolia but it's all fuzzy after that. lance doesn't think he really wants to remember anymore that happened.

lance drops his head down to see the IV stuck into his arm, forcing his eyes away from the balls of gas. he doesn't mind it being there but he'd like to know why. maybe he fell and hit his head and has a slight fever of amnesia. that's what happened when he was younger and woke up in a similar position but his mom was scolding his brother on letting the baby of the family ride a bike for the first time without stabilisers. when he was discharged from the hospital, his brother's bike was the first thing he went to.

suddenly he hears the whoosh of doors and his head snaps up to see his mamá, shiro, veronica and axca enter the room. his mum holds her breath and a hand comes over her mouth as she runs up to him, even after all these years, even with him getting lost in space to his many near death experiences she always reacts the same even if it's only something slight. he sees shiro and veronica smile before he is engulfed in his mother's arms. "lance! mi hijo, are you alright." his mother fusses but he reassures her that he is feeling much better, even if it's a lie.

veronica and shiro come up behind her, and it's only then when lances realises who is actually in the room. what is his mum doing on the atlas? aren't they going to- oh, keith. lances expression drops when his eyes land on axca, it's almost like she is hiding behind veronica but she is too tough for that. he remembers now. he remembers all the anger that built up inside of him and how he let it out on axca, ezor and zethrid. he remembers why they were there in the first place and keith wasn't. if looks could kill, the glare lance is giving axca now would have her on the ground with foam around her mouth. "where are we going." he demands, looking straight into axca's eyes. he doesn't expect her to answer and she doesn't.

"we're all heading to altea." supplies shiro with a small smile. what? altea? weren't they supposed to be saving kei-

axca silences his thoughts, "he's here lance. we have him, he's safe." his eyes go wide and his mothers worried face doesn't go unnoticed.

veronica frowns at her brothers sudden silence, so she supplies him with some knowledge he has the right to know. "you've been out for two weeks. we found keith yesterday and now we are on our way to altea on shiro and corans orders." shiro nods in agreement with his sisters words.

"h-he's alive? and here? and okay?!" lance asks, struggling in his mother loving but tight grip. she holds his head in her hand, bringing it to her chest like she always would when he was upset when he was little. she would always let him hear her heartbeat, it calmed him down. even now. even if it was only by the slightest bit.

his mum kisses him on the top of his head, "el está a salvo y vivo mi hijo." her heartbeat may reassure him but her words don't. he asked if he was okay, and he didn't get an answer. lance wriggles himself out of his mothers grip and rips the bed sheets off of his body. there is a bag at his feet when he hops out of bed, wobbling slightly. he picks it up and throws it over his shoulder, heading for the door.

but he doesn't get there, axca stands in front of him with her arms up at her shoulders, as if he took one more step she would push him back ten. "we don't think you should see keith right no lance." once the words come out of her mouth he can't believe it. no one is going to stop him from seeing one of his best friends, especially when they've been in trouble and he hasn't seen them in ages. no one. lance rolls his eyes and doesn't say a word to her, walking past and surprisingly she lets him go and he just about gets to the doors when shiro's voice is heard, "lance.. how you may see him may shock you. none of us want you to end up in the medbay again." lance understands but he doesn't care. he shakes his head and continues down the corridor. he doesn't even know where mullet is but he has to be around here somewhere.

he doesn't even get to turn a corner before shiro is beside him again, lance looks up at him in silent desperation to see his friend. to see why he had to call a 'code red'. the blade of marmora were a humanitarian relief organisation now, and everything that was a major threat to the universe was gone.. so why had keith done it. shiro's brows furrow and he puts and hand on lances shoulder, "c'mon, if we can't stop you then i don't want you getting lost." he's comforted by shiro's words and sends him a smile as a way to say thank you, all the man does is nod and bring lance down the corridor in the other direction.

after about five minutes of walking they get to a much larger corridor where the rest of the paladins are. krolia and kolivan are there as well and they all seem to be looking through a window with worrisome expressions. pidge has her hand tangled into her hair and her bottom lip between her teeth, hunk is leaning against the wall just dead on looking into the room, his face is blank. krolia is a tough cookie to crack and the only time lance had ever seen her let her guard down was when she was saying goodbye to keith before Zendak attacked earth, but this time, from the look on her face lance really knew something bad had happened. and he knew that because krolias face was the face of a mother in distress.

lance takes a deep breath before he fully walks into the room and is met with what is on the other side of the glass pane. everybody notices him walk in but nobody vocalises it, in this moment silence is golden. the gasp he takes is shaky when he sees keith on the other side of the glass, heck of course it was keith but how he looked is what shocked lance the most. he was laid out onto a medbed with no covers on, his clothes were tangled, scratched and burnt off in places. his fringe was barely covering his eyes and the rest of his long hair was tied back into a loose low pony, most of his skin was whiter than usual and he was curled up into a ball. some might say he is just sleeping and a little under the weather but lances brain couldn't even comprehend what else he was seeing. draped over his legs and curled up just like him was a long slender tail with a bit of black tuff at the end of it, his hands were bonier and still small but they were joint with slight claws instead of bitten down nails, his ears were the same except for the slight point of them and them being a tad bit longer, they looked a lot like krolias. he could see keith's teeth as his mouth was slightly open with the way he was lying on the bed and his pearly whites weren't the same either, his canine teeth had become sharper and much more cat like. the questions pile into lances head, how is keith like this? what did this to him? why were they near that planet in the first place? why was lance suddenly immensely angry?

he was still, frozen. "keith." he murmurs breathlessly. his eyes drift all around the room his friend is quarantined in, he's hooked up to things lance has never seen before. coran and the meds probably wanted to run some tests, heck why wouldn't they. perform tests on a former paladin of voltron without first hand consent, outrageous. lance has to look away, his hands tighten and his nails dig into his palm. he looks to the floor and burns a hole in it, then his eyes flicker up to krolia and she's looking straight at him. her eyes are pleading, as if she is silently asking him for something and they are also knowing, she knows something about this situation that the others don't.

pidge sighs and lances eyes drift to her, "he hasn't moved since we found him. shiro carried him back and he was sent here right away, the weird thing is that his vitals are strong and he seems healthy. obviously, except for.. everything else." and by that she means the galra features now present on keith's body and the tears and burns through his blade of marmora suit.

lance nods. "but.. what happened- i mean, what caused him to be like this?" he asks, gaze now back on keith, hands gesturing to him through the glass.

in his peripheral vision, lance sees hunk shrug, "we dunno, we found him just lying there on a deserted planet all torn up and stuff and galra like. but axca, ezor and zethrid have said nothing so far.. but we don't think we're gonna get anything from them, so we're waiting for keith to wake up." was the planet deserted though? what had keith been doing there in the first place? why won't axca or anyone say anything?

lance decides that being in this room and staring at his friend is doing nothing for the anxiety pooling in his stomach, looking at keith makes him want to get sick. not because of his features but because of what happened, he'd rather see him fully galra and awake than half galra, passed-out and almost torn to shreds. those marks on keith remind lance of something but he can't think exactly what, all he knows is that they will definitely scar.

the room is silence once again and surprisingly it's krolia who breaks it, "lance.." that gets his head turns and he notices that she's looking at shiro with her eyes. he looks to shiro too and notice him give a tiny nod, she nods back and then turns back to lance to finish her sentence, "will you.. go in?"

it takes him a moment but soon he realises what she is actually asking him to do. why not her? why not shiro? he opens his mouth to reply before shiro stops him, "please." he says.

lance side eyes him, "but why? what will that do?"

pidge sighs, "we have a feeling that if someone he knows is present he may wake up. it's a long shot but we need to know what happened to him so we can treat him.. better to try wake him up now than at altea when he has to go straight into a healing pod." beside her hunk looks him in the eye and silently nods.

"why me though?" asks lance. he's probably the last person keith would want to see, sure they've resolved their problems and are close friends but there are other people in this room he'd much rather see than him straight away.

"we've all already tried." supplies shiro.

lance looks around the room for proof, only to be met with nods from everyone, including kolivan. he sighs and looks through the glass pane again, it wouldn't hurt to try. he nods to shiro and the door to the room opens with a huff, once lance steps into the room he can see how many machines there actually are keeping a close eye on keith. in the room beside this one he can see the doctors negotiating and when looking up at the glass pane again he is met with himself.

keith doesn't stir as he walks over to the bed. it's big enough for lance to even lie down in, but he pushed that thought quickly out of his mind. the boy on the table looks peaceful yet disturbed at the same time, his face is relaxed yet tense and his hands fall limp yet stay firm. his tail or nose doesn't twitch when he takes a seat on the bed, keith's body behind him and lances knees in-line with keith's head. lance looks down at him. his hair looks soft. too soft for how long he had been on that planet but with a closer look he can see that underneath his raggedy bangs there is in fact a bandaid there, close to his hairline. some blood probably got tangled in the roots of his midnight black hair.

lance doesn't realise that his hand has come up off the bed and near keith's head until he feels the soft locks on the tips of his fingers. he doesn't stop himself, cause keith won't wake up. he brushes keith's bangs away from his face, to get a better look at his eyebrows and forehead and the gash covered with he bandaid. lances hand drifts back behind his neck and pulls out the loosely don't ponytail. he wraps the tie around his wrist, and continues to gently stroke keith's hair, giving his unconscious friend as much comfort as possible.

a second later he feels something as soft as keith's hair wrap around his hand on the either side of him. lances eyes blow up as he looks down to his right hand and sees keith's newly attained tail wrapped around his wrist. his head snaps back to keith's upper half when he feels the boy stir under his touch, his eyes don't open but he bury's himself closer to lances hand nestled in his hair, the boys tail wraps tighter around his left wrist. lance is frozen. keith's, there. he knows lance or, someone is there. lance doesn't think he can get any more she'll-shocked that he already is until he feels small patterned vibrations under his hand. a soft buzz radiates off keith and- holy shit. he's fucking purring.

lances breath catches in his throat and suddenly feels way too overwhelmed. about this, about the atlas, about him fainting and about how he feels, even with these small meaningless touches he feels like he's slapped allura straight across the face. and the other is unconscious, he has no clue how his unlikely warm actions are affecting him. lance doesn't think, he stands up suddenly catching his hand in a tangle in keith's hair and pulling, his other hand ripping out of the tight grip of the smaller's tail and he practically jumps off the bed. keith bolts up with a high pitched growl but lance is too far away to notice he has woken up and the last thing keith sees is lances back running away and hunk puffing after him and shiro bolting into the room before the darkness takes over his vision again and he can't even feel how hard he hits the bed.

 

 

 

 

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thanks for reading! if you enjoyed leave a kudos if you want and if you have any tips leave a comment! see y'all in the next chapter.

**Author's Note:**

> hi, ya, sorry i know but it has to get worse before it gets better y'all.


End file.
